EU proposes Europe-wide criminal database

mkpdavies · 27-01-2005, 04:51 PM

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/9a004a80-6f...0abe49a01.html

Quote:

Franco Frattini, European Union justice commissioner, will say it is too difficult for EU countries to find out where else in the bloc people have been convicted and to obtain and understand the details.

But creation of a central database is controversial among many of the EU's 25 member states because of concerns over privacy.

Countries such as Germany have previously challenged the idea, arguing that there are no EU-wide data protection laws governing how the information might be used.

If approved by member states, the database would initially contain the names, dates of birth and nationalities of convicted criminals. Police would then have to apply to a country to discover the specific offence committed or sentence. A more detailed database could be set up later.

The creation of a database would require the EU to draw up a common definition of a conviction and could force some member states to change the way they record crimes. Not all national criminal registers are computerised across the EU.

Watching carefully to see how this develops.

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